Steve Gleason Announces New Fund Raising Initiative to Fight ALS

Steve Gleason Announces New Fund Raising Initiative to Fight ALS

NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) - Thursday afternoon at a hotel conference room in the CBD, Saints fan favorite Steve Gleason announced a new initiative in coordination with his Team Gleason group. It’s called Answer ALS and is designed to raise big money for medical research over the next five years.

Gleason suffers from ALS and is unable to walk or speak. He uses a high-tech computer to communicate.

“It’s the single largest effort to end ALS in the history of the disease,” Gleason said using the computer.

Team Gleason hopes to raise $125 million a year for the next five years to support stem cell research. According to Team Gleason’s Paul Varisco, who is also the father of Gleason’s wife Michel, the research will turn skin cells into stem cells and allow individualized research on large number of ALS patients.

Gleason hopes to raise millions from Fortune 500 companies as well as the wealthiest Americans.

“I’m daring those capable individuals to change the world we’re living in,” Gleason via his computer. “I’m daring the world to step up and help solve ALS.”

The initiative follows an international summit organized by Team Gleason a year ago.